Swearing Parrot May Be Sole Witness to Owner's Fatal Shooting

A parrot is taking on a key role in a murder investigation in the US, after the parents of a murdered man found the bird repeatedly saying the phrase "Don’t f***ing shoot" and therefore believing the African grey knows who done it.

Lillian and Charles Duram are pushing for the bird's evidence to be considered by prosecutors, as it appears to be the only witness to events when their son Martin was shot dead last year. The sorry case also saw Martin's wife Glenna get shot in the head too, although with Glenna a suspect in the case the inference is that she suffered a self-inflicted wound -- after shooting her husband five times -- in an effort to shift blame to a third party.

Charles Duram told ABC News: "When he started talking about the shooting, we listened because he does pick up things," with experts saying the African grey parrot in question does have a thing for mimicking both male and female voices, so should be a trusted witness. No one's suggesting the parrot did it. [ABC News]